Howdy Doody - Custody Battle

Custody Battle

After the death of Buffalo Bob Smith, a fierce legal and custody battle for the original Howdy Doody erupted between the heirs of Bob Smith, the Rufus Rose estates and a museum to which the marionette had been bequeathed. Howdy was once again in the news, with his face and story making headline broadcast, wire, talk show and print news around the world. For a while, during the tug-of-war fight, Howdy was held hostage in a bank safety deposit box while his saga played out in the federal courts. During one day of deposition, puppetmaker Alan Semok (who had performed various maintenance and re-painting of the original Howdy marionnette beginning in 1989) was called upon to unseal a trap door on the back of the puppet's head; Velma Dawson, the puppet's original builder, who was 88 years of age at the time of the deposition, was present and given the opportunity to examine the inside of the head in an effort to verify that the puppet in question was the original that she created. Despite 50 years of numerous repairs, repaints, and replaced body parts, Dawson eventually declared the head of the puppet to be the one she originally made in 1948. The Detroit Institute for Arts, which has one of the largest collections of historically significant puppets in North America, ultimately prevailed in the case and now has custody of the original Howdy.